Your Christmas or Mine 2 (2023)

I was quite surprised that Jim O'Hanlon managed to pretty much reassemble the entire cast from the first of these harmless Christmas comedies and this time, take them all off to Austria for a seasonal snow-fest. Of course, things go wrong from the start with the posh "Hughes" family ending up in a rather basic log cabin whilst "Hayley" (Cora Kirk) and the Macclesfield massive end up in five star luxury. This sets the scene for a few escapades as the socially ill-matched families have to make the best of their differences whilst "James" (Asa Butterfield) plucks up some courage. The original film had something natural to it, this is way more contrived. Saving the bitchiness of "Diane" (Jane Krakowski) who has latched onto "Lord Humphrey" (Alex Jennings) and extols all the virtues of a kale-smoothie swilling, name dropping health nut, the rest of the story rather stutters along based on a few trivial misunderstandings and a rather menacing chocaholic black ram! There isn't really much chemistry between Butterfield and Kirk either, and by half way through this was heading down the slopes as quickly as Franz Klammer. It's easy to watch festive fodder, but I doubt you will recall watching it half an hour after Krakowski closes the show with "Wish it Could be Christmas..."

It has an issue or two, but for the majority: a good watch. 'Your Christmas or Mine 2' doesn't improve upon its predecessor, it is compartively much weaker, but there are still some amusing moments in there, as well as a solid amount of festive vibes. The change of scenary concerned me early on in terms of how the film would turn out, but turn out well it does in fairness. Cast-wise it's pleasant, those onscreen are the movie's best feature in my opinion. Asa Butterfield and Cora Kirk are a suitable pairing, I mentioned in my review of the original that they didn't appear much together due to the plot but that isn't the case for the most part here. Those in support are swell, including Daniel Mays, Angela Griffin and David Bradley. Ram John Holder doesn't have much to do, though does have a very nice scene with Kirk late on. Jane Krakowski, meanwhile, is a positive addition. One, somewhat minor, issue I did have is the overdramatized plot device near the end. It goes from an overally happy story to all of a sudden becoming a soap opera, as the characters of Butterfield and Kirk hit major drama. It's so over the top, the film doesn't earn the sort of emotional beat that it was trying to portray. It didn't hit, but thankfully wraps up sharpish-ish. That aside, it's a film I'd recommend - especially if you like the first flick, obvs.